Cardi B is clapping back at Tiger King star Carole Baskin’s criticism of her new music video for her song “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion. The 27-year-old rapper was asked about Baskin’s negative comments about the video due to its use of tigers in a new interview with i-D, and Cardi didn’t pull any punches.
After the internet-breaking video — which features cameos from Kylie Jenner and Normani — came out last Thursday, Baskin said in a statement to 360aproko that the use of tigers in “WAP” may glamorize the notion of having them as pets. The animal activist famous for feuding with Joe Exotic said in part, “That makes every follower of these artists, who doesn’t know better, want to imitate by doing the same. After tigers are too old for pay-to-play sessions by people like Joe Exotic, Bhagavan Antle, Marc McCarthy, Mario Tabraue and others, they become a liability instead of an asset.”
Cardi was asked about Baskin’s statement in the new interview, and she said she was above engaging with Baskin. She also accused Baskin of killing her husband, Don Lewis, who went missing in 1997. He was declared legally dead in 2002.
“I’m not gonna engage with Carole Baskin on that,” Cardi said. “Like, that’s just ridiculous you know? Oh, Lord. Like, girl you killed your goddamn husband.”
Baskin told 360aproko in a statement Sunday that while she was pleased that the scenes in the video with the tigers appeared photoshopped and that Cardi and Megan didn’t seem to actually spend time in the same room as the animals, she noted that the felines would likely still have been involved in some form of filming.
“You have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image and that doesn’t happen in the wild,” she said. “It can’t happen in sanctuaries like ours where cats have plenty of room to avoid a green screen (or would shred it if offered access and could die from ingesting it).”
“That tells me they probably dealt with one of the big cat pimps, who makes a living from beating, shocking and starving cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio,” she continued. “That’s never good for the cat.”
Baskin said the worst part of the video was that it “glamorizes the idea of rich people having tigers as pets.”
“While I think most are destroyed behind closed gates at that point, some end up being given away to people who want to have a tiger to show off,” Baskin said. “That never works out and the cats either die or end up dumped in sanctuaries or, worse yet, breeding mills. There have been some accounts of tigers just being turned loose on communities when they no longer served as ego props. No matter how you cut it, it’s always abusive to the cat and dangerous to the public.”
